John Strehlow

Last updated April 01, 2024

John Strehlow (born 1946) is an Australian stage director, playwright, and author. He is known for his workThe tale of Frieda Keysser: Frieda Keysser & Carl Strehlow, an historical biography, about his grandparents, Lutheran missionaries Carl and Frieda Strehlow, who served for many years at Hermannsburg Mission in the Northern Territory.

Early life

Strehlow was born in 1946 in Adelaide, South Australia, into a family closely involved with Aboriginal people for three generations. His parents are Ted and Bertha Strehlow and his paternal grandparents are Carl and Frieda Strehlow.^[1]

Strehlow received his early education from Adelaide Boys' High School from 1958 to 1963, and while at school he studied piano, clarinet and, later, the organ. As an organist he Organ Music Society of Adelaide competition in 1962.^{[ citation needed ]}

Strehlow studied Classics at the University of Adelaide from 1964 to 1966 before changing to Modern European and Asian History in 1967, from which he graduated with honours in 1969. His thesis analysed Mahatma Gandhi's use of tradition to further the Indian independence movement. In these university years Strehlow also reviewed theatre and film and, from 1968 until graduation, he ran the student film society there.^[2]

Following graduation Strehlow spent six months in India, staying mostly in Calcutta, and spent short periods in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran.^{[ citation needed ]}

Career

From 1970 to 1972 Strehlow taught drama in South Australia, and during this period he met and established relationships with many Pitjantjatjara people and groups from the Flinders Ranges. It is because of this that Strehlow decided to learn the Pitjantjatjara language, and undertook a course at the University of Adelaide under Bill Edwards. From 1972 to 1975 Strehlow lived in Alice Springs, where he established a clothing business.^{[ citation needed ]}

In 1975 Strehlow left Alice Springs after receiving a grant from the Australian Schools Commission to tour theatre and run workshops in all NT towns, as well as 12 Aboriginal settlements, performing to all age groups under a wide range of conditions for six months.^[3] A big reason for Strehlow doing this was to try to understand the predicament of Central Australia and the plight of the Aboriginal peoples living in the communities round Alice Springs, which so many of his family had devoted their lives to doing.^[4]

In 1976 Strehlow returned to Adelaide, where he established a theatre company which would travel the world and perform to more than 300 theatres in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. Of the more than 50 productions performed, specialising in Shakespeare's plays, four were written by Strehlow: Ali Baba; Revolution's Son; The Slaying of the Dragon King; and The Elusive Reality.^[5]^[6]^[7] During this period, for almost 30 years, Strehlow based himself in London.^[4]

In addition to writing plays, Strehlow has written for newspapers and magazines, given interviews for radio and television, and acted as an adviser for numerous cultural institutions holding materials relating to Aboriginal Australians.In 2000 he contributed to Mr Strehlow's Films (directed by Hart Cohen), a documentary film based around the work of his father Ted Strehlow.^{[ citation needed ]}

In the 1990s Strehlow became increasingly curious about the lives of his grandparents, Carl and Frieda Strehlow after discovering the existence of Frieda's diaries, written in old script German,^[4] in Berlin and the realisation that this personal record of her life in Hermannsburg, from 1897 and 1908 which revealed previously unknown details of their lives their and happenings in the community and more generally around Central Australia. Strehlow began work on what would become a two-volume set in 1994, and the final volume was published, in two parts, in 2019; the launch was held at The Residency in Alice Springs on 17 December 2019. At this launch Ted Egan said that Strehlow had "contributed monumentally to the historic records of the NT" and that this work "will be of benefit to all scholars".^[8]

Strehlow records these stories in the first person, saying:^[9]

It is my story, when I got going on it properly I thought either I had to tell it completely in an objective fashion as if I’m not really part of it or I had to make it really clear that it is my story. I couldn’t do both. It could have been told the other way but it would, for me, ring false. Obviously I wanted to know the story. To some extent these events have really, I wouldn’t say totally dominated my life, but they’ve certainly been a very powerful shaping force.
— John Strehlow, Alice Springs News Online

Research for this work took Strehlow to more than 50 archives in the UK, Germany and Australia and rests not only on Freida's diaries, but other untapped sources only published in German (which Strehlow learnt for this purpose).^[8] The ultimate result includes a detailed record of day-to-day life at Hermannsburg, the forming of stations in the area, the survival of the Arrernte and Luritja people in the area, and the pressure the missionaries faced.^[4]

Publications

Related Research Articles

Hermannsburg, also known as Ntaria, is an Aboriginal community in Ljirapinta Ward of the MacDonnell Shire in the Northern Territory of Australia, 125 kilometres (78 mi); west southwest of Alice Springs, on the Finke River, in the traditional lands of the Western Arrarnta people.

Theodor George Henry Strehlow was an Australian anthropologist and linguist. He notably studied the Arrernte Aboriginal Australians and their language in Central Australia.

Carl Friedrich Theodor Strehlow was an anthropologist, linguist and genealogist who served on two Lutheran missions in remote parts of Australia from May 1892 to October 1922. He was at Killalpaninna Mission in northern South Australia, from 1892 to 1894, and then Hermannsburg, 80 miles (130 km) west of Alice Springs, from 1894 to 1922. Strehlow was assisted by his wife Friederike, who played a central role in reducing the high infant mortality which threatened Aboriginal communities all over Australia after the onset of white settlement.

The Arrerntepeople, sometimes referred to as the Aranda, Arunta or Arrarnta, are a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the Arrernte lands, at Mparntwe and surrounding areas of the Central Australia region of the Northern Territory. Many still speak one of the various Arrernte dialects. Some Arrernte live in other areas far from their homeland, including the major Australian cities and overseas.

Warren Hedley Williams is an Aboriginal Australian singer, musician and songwriter from Ntaria in Central Australia. As of 2013 he worked as a broadcaster on CAAMA Radio in Alice Springs.

Kasper Gus Ntjalka Williams, known as Gus Williams, was an Aboriginal Australian country music singer who lived in Central Australia. He was known not only for his work in Aboriginal country music, but also as a leader of his people. He created the first electric country band in the Northern Territory, the Warrabri Country Bluegrass Band.

Ntaria Choir, formerly known as Ntaria Ladies Choir, Hermannsburg Ladies Choir, Hermannsburg Choir, and various other names, is a choir of Australian Aboriginal people from Hermannsburg in Central Australia. The members of the choir are Arrernte people from the area and they sing a mixture of English, Arrente, and Pitjantjatjara.

Moritz Freiherr von Leonhardi was a German anthropologist.

Strehlow is a German surname. Notable people with this surname include:

Reginald Ernest Battarbee, was an Australian artist notable for painting landscapes of Central Australia, and for teaching Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira to paint.

The Namatjira Project is an Australian community cultural development project, launched in 2009, conducted by arts and social change company Big hART. It is based in the Aboriginal communities of Hermannsburg (NT) and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. Its focus is the life and work of the late Albert Namatjira, an Arrernte watercolour landscape artist. The project undertakes community work and has developed an award-winning touring theatre show, Namatjira, which depicts "the commercial appropriation of Aboriginal experience".

Friederike Johanna Henriette Strehlow née Keysser better known as Frieda Strehlow, was a German missionary who lived and worked at Hermannsburg in the Northern Territory of Australia in the early 1900s. She was best known for overcoming the high rate of infant mortality for Aboriginal children.

William Henry Willshire was an Australian police officer who worked in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. He was the first police officer to be charged for murder in Australian history, after killing a group of Aboriginal people at Tempe Downs Station.

The Bilinarra, also spelt Bilingara and Bilinara, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory.

The Luritja or Loritja people, also known as Kukatja or Kukatja-Luritja, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Their traditional lands are immediately west of the Derwent River, that forms a frontier with the Arrernte people, with their lands covering some 27,000 square kilometres (10,300 sq mi). Their language is the Luritja dialect, a Western Desert language.

The massacre of Running Waters was the killing of 80 to 100 Arrernte men, women and children of the Southern Aranda language group of Aboriginal Australians by a raiding party of 50 to 60 Matuntara warriors in 1875. The massacre took place at Irbmangkara, a permanent water stretch of the Finke River about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Gerhardt Andreas Johannsen was a stonemason, builder and pastoralist in the Northern Territory.

Bertha Gwendoline Alexandra Strehlow was an educator and pioneer, the first wife of Ted Strehlow, an anthropologist and linguist who worked primarily with the Arrernte People. Although she is often forgotten, Strehlow was her husband's main supporter, and edited his works; she also published some accounts of their activities.

Friedrich Wilhelm Albrecht was a Lutheran missionary and pastor who was the superintendent at Hermannsburg Mission in Central Australia from 1926 to 1952 where he made a significant contribution.

Robert Henry Buck was an Australian pastoralist, bushman and drover who is best remembered as being one of the people to recover the body of Lewis Harold Bell Lasseter.

References

↑ Koerner, Bernhard. (2010). Deutsches geschlechterbuch (genealogisches handbuch b rgerlicher familien.). Nabu Press. ISBN 978-1-174-84201-6. OCLC 945350021.
↑ "John Strehlow - About". John Strehlow. 14 March 2024. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
↑ Australian Schools Commission (1975), Australian Schools Commission Grant No. 95/5013
1 2 3 4 Rothwell, Nicholas (11 February 2002). "John Strehlow, son of the great anthropologist, grandson of the trailblazing missionary, has added his own indispensable contribution to the literature of remote indigenous Australia". The Australian.
↑ Tideman, Harold (25 February 1977). "Dream acted with vitality". The Advertiser.
↑ Neilson, Sandy (8 September 1978). "Aladdin and Ali Baba". The Scotsman.
↑ Koopmans, Jaap (18 January 1980). "Review". Rotterdams Nieuwsblad.
1 2 Egan, Ted (23 December 2019). "Hermannsburg Mission: questions of survival". Alice Springs News. Speech by former Administrator Ted Egan AO at the launch of Volume II of The Tale of Frieda Kaysser by John Strehlow. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
↑ Finnane, Kieran. "'Soul of the whole past time'". Alice Springs News. Retrieved 27 April 2020.

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[1] Koerner, Bernhard. (2010). Deutsches geschlechterbuch (genealogisches handbuch b rgerlicher familien.). Nabu Press. ISBN 978-1-174-84201-6. OCLC 945350021.

[2] "John Strehlow - About". John Strehlow. 14 March 2024. Retrieved 31 March 2024.

[3] Australian Schools Commission (1975), Australian Schools Commission Grant No. 95/5013

[:0-4] 1 2 3 4 Rothwell, Nicholas (11 February 2002). "John Strehlow, son of the great anthropologist, grandson of the trailblazing missionary, has added his own indispensable contribution to the literature of remote indigenous Australia". The Australian.

[5] Tideman, Harold (25 February 1977). "Dream acted with vitality". The Advertiser.

[6] Neilson, Sandy (8 September 1978). "Aladdin and Ali Baba". The Scotsman.

[7] Koopmans, Jaap (18 January 1980). "Review". Rotterdams Nieuwsblad.

[:1-8] 1 2 Egan, Ted (23 December 2019). "Hermannsburg Mission: questions of survival". Alice Springs News. Speech by former Administrator Ted Egan AO at the launch of Volume II of The Tale of Frieda Kaysser by John Strehlow. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

[9] Finnane, Kieran. "'Soul of the whole past time'". Alice Springs News. Retrieved 27 April 2020.

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